Rivers State government has offered five million naira cash for useful information that would help track down last week’s killers of Ricky Wiginton, an American oil worker, in Port Harcourt.
It would be recalled that Governor Peter Odili was out of the country for a round table talk on the future of the state and the region when the sad incident occurred.
Late Wiginton was assassinated in the early hours of last Tuesday on his way to work by unknown gunmen said to be on a motorbike.
There was no clue yet as at press time on why they snuffed life out of him.
In a statement, the governor tasked the police to do everything possible to unearth those behind the heinous crime just as he condemned the killing.
He consoled the American government and the family of the deceased and prayed God to grant them the fortitude to bear the loss.
Meanwhile, Governor Peter Odili in a statement called for concerted solution towards resolving the Niger Delta problem.
The governor said without a joint effort of all stakeholders which include communities, government and others, developing the region would suffer hiccups.
Governor Odili traced the problem of restiveness in the region to what he termed unfair treatment. He explained that since the bulk of the nation�s resources come from the area, in line with nature, the people expected more attention.
He also said the illegal crude oil business was another cause of militancy in the area. He said to protect the illicit trade, those into it had acquired weapons to confront security operatives.
Continuing, he noted the utmost need to strengthen security agencies in the region just as he assured that President Obasanjo’s reform programmes would take the region to greater heights.
He said Rivers state had to come up with an initiative on strategic sustainable development as a litmus test. And when it works, it would be extended to other regions.
�We therefore saw the need to have some forum where all stakeholders could come together so that efforts will not be duplicated and coordination becomes a lot easier, while overlaps are avoided as much as possible. That made us to start an initiative for sustainable development for Rivers State and since Rivers state is the capital of the Niger Delta area, we felt that if the Rivers experiment works, it could be replicated across the region and become a model to be applied elsewhere in Nigeria,� he said.